SYL | 'sill' - short for 'Sylvester'
- rhymes with 'Bill', 'Phil' and 'Will'
- best not pronounced as 'Sile' or 'Sly'
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A Photographer Raised In the Traditions of the 20th-Century,
Who Embraces The Best Practices of 21st-Century Digital Photography
Back when the Apollo program was headline news, Syl Arena, then a precocious eight-year old, "borrowed" his father's new-fangled Polaroid camera, climbed up into an orange tree and made his first solo photograph - a snapshot of a baby dove. Syl's affliction for making photographs has remained steadfast for nearly 40 years.
In college, Syl studied at Brooks Institute of Photography and then earned a BFA in photography at the University of Arizona. As a student, his favorite cameras spanned the gamut from 4x5 to a homemade, 20x24 pinhole. Syl mastered the zone system of black and white printing. Then, during his retro-phase, worked in a number of 19th-century media, such as cyanotypes and carbon prints.
Today, Syl photographs the people, lifestyles and products of central California for advertising, editorial, and corporate clients. Whether it's a single glass of wine or a group of winemakers, America's most popular rose or the man who bred it, the world's fastest sailboat or the team that races it, Syl has the expertise and the personality to create memorable photographs -- both on location and in the studio.
Syl employs state-of-the-art, purely digital workflows from image capture to final output. Pure digital is the best solution for photography that needs to be color-critical, tasked to a variety of media, or produced rapidly on your premises. An innovator in portable, tethered shooting, Syl can tie his camera directly into his color-profiled computer workstation on location so that you can make decisions about critical color during the shoot.
Syl is also very experienced at shooting for CMYK reproduction. He understands that not every color can be faithfully reproduced on the pages of a magazine or catalog. More importantly, Syl can guide you through the alternatives - both during the shoot and in post-production.
From his home in Paso Robles, Syl can easily access locations in northern and southern California and throughout the San Joaquin Valley within a few hours.
SYL'S PORTFOLIOS
- Food & Wine - The intersection of Syl's past and present provide the stimulus for this growing area of Syl's portfolio. As the son of three generations of farmers, Syl knows implicitly where his food comes from. Further, Syl can relate to the people who produce it. Having spent more than a decade in Paso Robles, the small town halfway between Los Angeles and San Francisco that serves as the hub of California's central coast wine industry, Syl is increasingly called upon to create compelling images of his hometown's #1 export.
- Persona - Beyond having a memorable name, Syl's friends and clients recognize him for two unique attributes: his crazy, red hair and his sense of humor. Syl's approach to creating a memorable portrait is to engage his sitter in an intimate visual dialogue. Having studied with a number of great location photographers, including Joe McNally and Michael Grecco, Syl is as adept at lighting and shooting in the field as he is in a studio.
- Shelter - Big or small, traditional or modern, calm or energetic... our homes are first and foremost shelter. Syl has a unique eye for catching the light and geometry of a space in a way that conveys the emotion of a home.
- Environmental - Syl's view of environmentalism is our natural and social resources should be put to just and proper uses. Stewardship and sustainability are at the forefront of his thinking. These philosophies drive his vision when he points his camera towards the landscape. Syl strives not to separate mankind from the enviroment. Rather, his enviromental work graphically portrays mankind's involvement with the environment.
- Botanica -It was not a big step for Syl to go from his family's roots in agriculture over to the world of ornamental plants. For nearly 15 years, Syl worked in horticulture. During this time, he shot and designed catalogs for a number of the country's leading rose producers. His botanical work has appeared in Sunset, Martha Stewart.com, The New York Times and a number of leading garden books.
A PROLIFIC BLOGGER
Syl hosts three blogs:
- PixSylated - Honestly biased insights on the trends, tools and techniques that are shaping the world of digital photography today.
- Photo-Resources.org - An ever-expanding list of events and resources for photographers.
- Paso Robles Photographer - Dedicated to Syl's photography in and around Paso Robles.
PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS

- ASMP - American Society of Media Photographers My ASMP listing
- EP - Editorial Photographers My EP listing
- SAA - Stock Artists Alliance
- NAPP - National Association of Photoshop Professionals
- PLUS - Picture Licensing Universal System
PERSONAL MILESTONES
- 1969 – Photography career started at the age of 8 when my great-aunt gave me a Brownie camera
- 1984 – BFA in Photography, University of Arizona
- 1986 – My first Mac (a MacPlus) had a whopping megabyte of RAM
- 1995 – Jumped on the Photoshop bandwagon with version 3.0
- 1999 – Catalog Age Silver Medal in Garden Catalogs
- 2003 – Shot film commercially for the last time / Workflow now entirely digital
- 2005 – PDN World In Focus Award of Merit
ARE YOU LINKED IN?
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